On the Sequence for the Uninitiated

During the Carolingian Renaissance, new initiatives emerged in the field of musical genres. One of these was the sequence—a form that was both literary and musical. Alongside tropes, sequences became genres that contributed to the development of the so-called troping technique, which at the time facilitated the memorization of long chains of notes (melismas). The discovery of this method and the first sequences are described by a Benedictine monk from the Abbey of St. Gallen in his famous letter to Bishop Liutward (Cum adhuc iuvenculus essem). The article examines the development of this genre, its structural characteristics, and the transformations it underwent up to the time of the Council of Trent.